


Survival of the Bravest

by Spaceman130



Series: Falling Rain, Spilling Blood [3]
Category: Futurama
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 16:03:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7539052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spaceman130/pseuds/Spaceman130
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fry and company find out what happened to the advance team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Survival of the Bravest, part 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based on the beginning and ending segments of mission 5 of Vampire Rain. Thanks to KurtPikachu2001 for letting me name a character after him.

Inside the command vehicle, Fry, Leela and Hermes sat on the bench huddled in front of the glowing computer monitors. Fry listened to the rain as it drummed steadily against the command vehicle's roof.

The command vehicle was parked in a large parking lot outside of a small, unmarked building. No other cars were parked in the lot, making it a safe spot for the team.

Hermes called up Bender, who was in the advance team's command vehicle a few blocks away.

"Conrad to Rodríguez."

"Yeah, what?" Bender asked as if he couldn't be bothered.

"Check if your vehicle's computer has any information on the advance recon team," Hermes commanded.

"Sure, if it'll get you off my ass later!" Bender snapped.

A few seconds later, the monitors changed to show an overhead view of the city blocks near the command vehicle. Five orange rings also appeared to indicate the locations of the advance team members.

"Ha! Looks like they didn't do too well! Only two survived!" Bender reported in a scornful tone.

"That's _it_? Just two?!" Leela cried in disbelief.

Fry felt his heart sink. It was only a few hours into the mission, and they had already lost nearly an entire squad of specially trained soldiers. Knowing that he and his team were going up against the same threat that had taken all those soldiers' lives, Fry couldn't have felt more unnerved.

"How are the survivors doing?" Hermes asked.

"Almost as well as their teammates," Bender replied sarcastically. "Body temperatures and pulses failing..." He let out a sinister laugh. "Nightwalkers are killing humans left and right in this city. I love it! I wanna find their leader and overthrow him so I can take over!"

"You'll be doing no such thing, mon!" Hermes snapped. "Now send us the locations of the survivors!"

"When I take over the walkers, I'm sending them after you first!" Bender growled. He grudgingly obeyed Hermes and sent the information.

A few seconds later, the view of the city zoomed in to show only the block that Fry, Leela and Hermes were in. A small orange ring appeared over the building across from their command vehicle.

"Hey, they're right across from us!" Hermes exclaimed. "I wonder if Trenton is in there..."

Captain Trenton Sands was the leader of the advance recon team. He had befriended Hermes during their combat training, and they had become such close friends that they addressed each other by their first names.

The view zoomed out to show a few more blocks. Three small green rings appeared in various places, indicating the locations of the dead advance team members.

Hermes eyed Fry and Leela. "Both of you listen up," he instructed. "We're going to go into that building and rescue the survivors." He held out a handful of transmitters and gave some to Fry and Leela. "Attach these transmitters to any dead advance team members you find along the way. I'll have Rodríguez pick up them up later."

Leela gave Hermes a quick nod, then unholstered her handgun and cocked it, displaying her readiness to engage the enemy.

Fry looked down at the transmitters in his gloved hand. They looked like small, round light bulbs with little metal prongs sticking out of their bases. He pocketed them before looking back up.

Hermes called Bender back. "Rodríguez, contact headquarters and let them know about our situation. When we get back to the command vehicle, start collecting the corpses."

"Human corpses, you say? Can't wait to see 'em!" Bender uttered another devilish laugh, then ended the call.

Hermes looked at Fry. "Are you ready, Fry?" he asked.

"Y-yes, sir," Fry replied uneasily. Slowly and reluctantly, he pulled his handgun out of its holster and cocked it.

Leading the way, Hermes stepped out into the rain, followed by Leela, then Fry.

* * *

Fry, Leela and Hermes now stood outside the command vehicle, facing the building on the other side of the parking lot. Rain showered over the three of them.

"First things first, mon. Save any survivors you find in that building," Hermes instructed his teammates.

Fry and Leela both nodded in understanding. As they did, thunder rumbled overhead.

Hermes then began to jog toward the building. Fry and Leela followed behind him, their boots splashing up rainwater as they pounded against the ground.

They had only made it about halfway over when their headsets rang to indicate an incoming call. All three of them stopped and listened.

"Bender the Great here, bay-beh!" Bender announced on the other end. "After checking the identities of the survivors, I am deeply disappointed that there were survivors."

"Was any one of them Trenton?" Hermes asked.

"Yeah."

"Excellent. Conrad out."

Hermes terminated the call, and he and his teammates made the rest of their way over to the building.

The building had an automatically-opening door on the front and no windows on any side of it. As Hermes got close to the door, it slid open horizontally.

Hermes turned his gaze to Fry, then Leela. "Both of you come inside with me."

Fry shivered, then nodded at his team leader. He was grateful that he had to go indoors, as he had been out in the rain for less than a minute and he already felt uncomfortably cold.

Hermes and Leela raised their assault rifles, then stepped into the building with Fry following close behind them.

When they had each made it inside, the door shut behind them.

Fry, Leela and Hermes held their ground and examined what they could of the building's interior from their positions.

It appeared to be an office with dull beige walls. Despite the lights being on, the room appeared shadowy and dim. In front of Fry and Hermes were two rows of metal lockers placed back-to-back. Cardboard boxes lined the tops of the lockers.

"Hello? Survivors?" Fry called.

There was no answer.

Hermes groaned. "I don't like the looks of this," he murmured softly.

Fry didn't like the way Hermes said those words. From the way he said them, he sounded like he'd just seen something deeply disturbing.

Fry followed Hermes's gaze to the left — and started to feel sick to his stomach.

"Oh, geez," Fry groaned in disgust as his eyes ran over the mess.

An enormous dark red stain covered the floor near a desk with a laptop computer sitting on top of it. About two dozen papers, also stained red, were scattered all over the floor. An office chair lay on its side next to the huge stain.

"That's not all, Fry. Look," Hermes said, pointing down at the floor away from the stain.

Even though he didn't want to, Fry looked down — and saw a thick red trail leading behind the two rows of lockers.

Hermes held up his assault rifle and pointed it in the direction the trail was leading. "Let's go," he said to Fry.

Fry froze in fear. He didn't want to go any further. He had seen enough nightmare fuel in just this building alone.

Hermes started to proceed along the red trail, but then he looked behind him and saw that Fry wasn't following him. "Come _on_ ," he urged, clearly losing patience with Fry.

Fry pulled his handgun out of its holster, aimed it in front of him, and forced himself to move. He breathed in and out, in and out, trying to prepare himself for whatever was behind the lockers.

Observing Hermes as he moved, Fry saw that he appeared to be nervous as well, because he was moving at a slow, hesitant pace in order to delay seeing what the trail would lead to.

Whatever it was, Fry knew it would be bad. He continued to brace himself as he deliberately continued onward.

They were past the lockers now. Hermes took one more step, paused in his tracks, then turned to the left. Fry also stopped when he saw his team leader's expression suddenly change to one of pure horror. His eyes widened behind his glasses. His mouth dropped open and formed into an O of terror.

"Sweet lunas of Altoona!" Hermes cried.

Unable to stop himself, Fry instinctively followed Hermes's gaze — and gasped in absolute horror at what he saw.

There were two human corpses, both male. Both of them wore extremely torn and bloodstained EIB uniforms. Their skins looked as though they had been completely ripped off, as only pink muscle was visible. The deep red slashes that covered their bodies indicated that they had been savagely clawed to death.

Fry shuddered. The two soldiers somewhat resembled human muscle anatomy models with their bulging eyes and exposed teeth.

One of the soldiers hung upside down from a ceiling rafter by a cord tied around one ankle. The other soldier lay curled up on the floor in an enormous pool of dried blood, one of his legs torn off from the knee. His missing leg hung by a cord behind the hanging soldier. Papers were scattered all over the blood-spattered floor.

As if on cue, lightning flashed outside to accompany the grisly scene.

Fry fought to keep his dinner down as he took in the sight of the ugly mess. He couldn't believe the sheer brutality that the soldiers had been slain with. Except for nightwalkers, he couldn't imagine any other creature being able to create this incredibly gruesome scene.

Feeling sickened, Fry tore his eyes off the dead soldiers and looked at Hermes. Judging from his face, he looked as if he was on the verge of becoming physically ill as well. "Ugh..." he groaned disgustedly.

Fry realized that he hadn't heard a reaction from Leela. Turning around to face her, he saw her shaking her head in grief. "So much for the advance team," she said glumly.

"Unbelievable," Hermes said in disappointment. "These men had the same training we did. It doesn't look like it helped them much."

Twisting her face into a hard expression of vengeance, Leela added bitterly, "Those nightwalkers are gonna pay for this. Just like how I beat those rednecks in that monster truck rally."

Hermes took a transmitter out of one pocket and reluctantly affixed it to the hanging corpse. Once it was attached, a green light on it lit up. Then he knelt down and fastened another transmitter to the one-legged corpse on the floor.

"Fry, there are more dead soldiers out in the city," Hermes said to Fry. "You'll have to find them and attach these transmitters to them. That way, Rodríguez will be able to collect the bodies."

Fry felt a wave of dread roll over him. He didn't want to do this mission. It was bad enough that he was on his own trying to elude the deadly creatures that now populated New New York. But looking for more horribly massacred men? Fry's stomach churned as he thought about it.

Hermes's headset rang. Bender's voice came on. "Bender here. I'm missing a beer. I bet you stole it from me, chump!"

"Forget about the booze, mon!" Hermes snapped impatiently. "What about Trenton? Are you keeping track of him?"

A few seconds of silence. And then Bender replied, "He's gone."

"What? What do you mean he's gone?" Hermes demanded.

"His position and life readings dropped off the screen," Bender explained. "Oh, well. Better him than me." Hermes could hear Bender sigh and then guzzle some beer.

"I've worked with you for almost ten years, and I _still_ can't believe you're this apathetic, mon!" Hermes cried. He terminated the call in disgust, then turned around to face Fry. "Turanga and I will head for the spot where Trenton's last readings were transmitted. Fry, search the area for the rest of the bodies."

For a few seconds, Fry stared into Hermes's serious eyes. His mind raced as he thought about the unappealing mission. Finally, he replied to Hermes's command with an unconfident-sounding "Yes, sir."

Hermes faced Leela. "Let's go," he said.

Leela nodded.

With that, Hermes and Leela left the building and headed out into rain-soaked New New York, leaving Fry alone to deal with the nightwalkers once again.

Before leaving, Fry made the mistake of looking back at the dead soldiers one more time. He groaned in disgust. The more he looked at their bloody, slashed up skins, the more he felt like he was going to vomit.

 _I could be like them if I'm not careful_ , Fry realized with dread.

Fry tore his eyes off of the corpses and turned his back on them. Then he reluctantly walked out into the rainy city to get his mission underway.


	2. Survival of the Bravest, Part 2

Approximately fifteen minutes after he had started his mission, Fry turned into a poorly lit alley between two buildings. He was relieved to see that Hermes and Leela were just ahead waiting for him in the darkness.

Fry had accomplished his task of finding and tagging all of the dead soldiers in the area with transmitters. He had found a total of five bodies, all of them equally as horrific and sickening as the first two he had found inside the office. Three soldiers were impaled through various places by metal poles, one had his head smashed open against a wall, and one lay crushed underneath a rooftop fan.

Fry considered it a miracle he hadn't thrown up looking at any of the carnage. He had never seen any killings so horrifyingly brutal in his life.

Shortly after Fry had found the last corpse, Bender reacquired Captain Sands's readings and sent them to his teammates. Fry was now heading for Sands's position.

According to Fry's radar, Sands was situated in an alley near him and his teammates. It was the same alley he was heading toward right now.

Fry looked at his radar as he made his way to his teammates. He saw that as he moved, he glowing dot that represented Sands grew closer and closer to him.

Finally, Fry made it up to Hermes and Leela and joined them.

Hermes put his back against a building wall and peered around a corner. "Trenton should be nearby," he whispered to Fry and Leela. "Let's go."

Fry and Leela obediently followed after him as he turned the corner into a dead-end alley. A bright light on one wall provided considerably better lighting than the previous alley they were in. A dumpster sat against one wall of the alley.

Before they made it all the way into the alley, Hermes gave Leela an order. "Turanga, stand guard here," he whispered.

Leela nodded in understanding, then unholstered her handgun and stood with her back against the wall. "If anything has happened to Captain Sands, they'll have to answer to me." A hard, determined expression crossed her face as she stood with her gun at the ready.

Hermes proceeded into the alley with Fry following close behind him.

Suddenly, Hermes froze in his tracks. Fry nearly bumped into him.

"Sweet zombie Jesus," Hermes said in dismay.

"What is it?" Fry asked. He stepped next to Hermes so he could get a view of whatever it was that had him so distressed.

As he saw it, Fry let out a low, quiet gasp.

Captain Trenton Sands sat next to the dumpster, his back against the building wall. His head faced downward, and his eyes were shut. He didn't move.

As Fry studied Sands's uniform, he saw that it was badly ripped in several places. Through the tears in the uniform, he could see that the skin on Sands's chest and legs had long red slashes running through it.

In other words, Sands looked like he was dead.

Hermes let out a sad sigh. "It looks like we'll have to tag Trenton as well," Hermes said glumly. He walked over to Sands and knelt down in front of him.

Hermes was about to pull a transmitter out of his pocket when he noticed Sands stir.

"Trenton . . . ?" Hermes uttered in surprise.

Sands's eyes slowly opened and met Hermes's.

"Trenton? Are you all right?" Hermes asked with concern.

Sands stared into Hermes's eyes for a few seconds. Then he replied with, "Yeah, Hermes. I'm fine."

Although Sands sounded sincere in his response, Fry couldn't help but feel doubtful as he eyed him up and down. With all the long scratches covering his body, Sands looked as if he had been attacked by a wild animal, and he could only have survived by sheer miracle.

"What a relief," Hermes said gladly. "Let's head over to my command vehicle. You can tell us what happened to your team, Trenton."

Hermes stood up, watched Sands climb steadily to his feet, then walked over to Fry. The two of them turned their backs on Sands and began to make their way out of the alley.

* * *

Instead of following Fry and Hermes, Sands stood in place and watched them go on without him.

He raised one hand up to his neck and gently rubbed the area where he'd been bitten. Then he let his hand drop back to his side.

Sands watched his potential victims walk out of the alley for only a second more.

Then he began to transform.

Sands squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth as the painful, yet satisfying process took place. His body grew taller and leaner. His skin paled until it was white as death. His canine teeth extended and sharpened into fangs. His fingernails lengthened and became razor-sharp claws which burst through the fingertips of his gloves.

When his transformation from human to nightwalker was complete, Sands opened his eyes. They no longer resembled human eyes; they were green and monstrous instead.

Sands studied Fry and Hermes for a moment through his new monochrome vision. They moved ahead carefully and stealthily with their handguns out, unaware that they were being targeted for death from behind.

The two soldiers turned the corner and disappeared from Sands's view.

That was when Sands charged them.

He ran with his fangs bared and his claws outstretched, eager to sink them into human flesh.

Sands quickly approached the corner that Fry and Hermes had turned past. He could detect them despite the rain dampening his vampiric senses. They were so close, so near . . .

But before Sands could turn the corner and make mincemeat out of the soldiers, he felt pain instantly explode in his skull.

The pain was so intense, so strong that he wanted to scream and grab the sides of his head, but he couldn't.

The pain lasted for only a brief moment.

It was the last thing Sands felt before he dropped to the ground, and his vision faded to solid black.

* * *

Fry and Hermes suddenly heard a muffled bang followed shortly by a thud.

 _What was that?!_ Fry thought as he and Hermes immediately spun around to see what had made the jarring sounds.

When they had turned fully around, Fry and Hermes both stared in shock at Sands writhing in agony on the ground. As his body twisted and turned, it melted into a puddle of acid, the effect starting from his head and working its way down to his feet, a process which took only seconds.

Leela stood over the acid puddle, her handgun pointed down at it.

As Fry stared at the scene, it began to occur to him what had just happened.

Sands had become a nightwalker and had tried to attack him and Hermes. But before he could kill either of them, Leela fired her handgun at his head and blew his brains out.

If Leela hadn't reacted when she did, she and Fry and Hermes all would have been dead.

"Trenton!" Hermes cried in despair. He ran over to the acid puddle and knelt over it, staring hopelessly down at the form his comrade in arms had now taken. He shook his head sadly.

Fry and Leela walked up behind Hermes and put their hands on his shoulders in an attempt to comfort him. They both knew he had been close friends with Sands.

"He was my friend," Hermes said, the sorrow in his voice audible to his teammates. "He was always there watching my back. If only I could have watched his . . ." He let out a defeated sigh and added, "He's with sweet zombie Jesus now."

As Hermes finished speaking, the acid puddle disappeared into the ground.

After listening to Hermes's words, Fry's heart sank as he realized what this all meant.

Sands and his entire squad had been massacred by nightwalkers while trying to complete their mission. Now it was just Fry and his three teammates against a city swarming with the bloodthirsty creatures. Without the advance team to support them, Fry and company's odds for survival were now horribly slim.

Fry and Leela let go of Hermes's shoulders as he stood up. They then followed Hermes as he turned around and headed out of the alley.

Hermes called up Bender on his communicator as he made his way out. "Rodríguez, bring the command vehicle over to us," he instructed. "We're done looking for the advance team."

Hermes ended the call before Bender could insult him.


End file.
